


Love is my crime so, baby, come catch me and let's do the time

by TheSpaceHairAndTheSpaceIdiot



Category: Doctor Who RPF
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-16
Updated: 2015-04-16
Packaged: 2018-03-23 05:56:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3756982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSpaceHairAndTheSpaceIdiot/pseuds/TheSpaceHairAndTheSpaceIdiot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alex was just sitting down with a cup of tea, relaxing in front of the television before bed, when her phone rang. Startled, hardly expecting a call at nearly midnight, she felt a knot of apprehension form in her chest. Nothing good tended to come from unexpected late-night phone calls.</p><p>Looking down at the caller ID, she saw Matt's name pop up. Silently pleased to hear from her former costar, but pondering what he could possibly want, she hit the answer button. </p><p>"Kingston! Hi! How are you doing?" Matt's voice on the other end of the line was bright and upbeat, perhaps a tad bit too upbeat. She couldn't help but become suspicious.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love is my crime so, baby, come catch me and let's do the time

**Author's Note:**

> This started out as a drabble to get me out of my writing funk, and almost nine thousand words and several weeks later, I finally finished it. Thanks to Space_and_Thyme for sending me the prompt months ago when I was looking for inspiration! Title taken from David Lambert's "Outlaws".

Alex was just sitting down with a cup of tea, relaxing in front of the television before bed, when her phone rang. Startled, hardly expecting a call at nearly midnight, she felt a knot of apprehension form in her chest. Nothing good tended to come from unexpected late-night phone calls.

Looking down at the caller ID, she saw Matt's name pop up. Silently pleased to hear from her former costar, but pondering what he could possibly want, she hit the answer button.

"Hello? Matt?'

"Kingston! Hi! How are you doing?" Matt's voice on the other end of the line was bright and upbeat, perhaps a tad bit _too_ upbeat. She couldn't help but become suspicious.

"Hello, darling. I'm doing quite well," she said happily. "What about you? Is everything all right?" _Something_ had to be wrong. He didn't usually call at this hour of night. Truthfully, he didn't call very often at all. She wasn't sure if this was going to be something to warrant true worry, mere concern, or if she was feeling uneasy for no reason.

"Sure! I mean... why wouldn't everything be all right?" It was then that Alex heard the very slight slurring of his words. That might explain things a bit. Maybe he wasn't quite drunk, but he'd certainly been drinking at some point tonight.

Settling into a more comfortable position on her sofa, Alex allowed herself a moment to think about how to answer his question before responding. "Well... I generally hear from you by means of text, rather than a phone call and unless you happen to be in the next flat over, I don't usually hear from you this late at night - or early in the morning for you, seeing as the sun is probably rising about now over there in England," she said dryly.

Matt was silent for half a moment and Alex could almost hear his apprehension. "No, see, that's the thing, isn't it? I'm not in England. I'm there - well, here! I mean - I'm in LA!"

"Oh!" Alex exclaimed softly, surprise coloring her voice. She didn't know why exactly - Matt made fairly frequent trips to Los Angeles - but something about this whole conversation was keeping her on her toes, almost anticipating the surprise she was sure to feel when the actual reason for the call made itself clear.

"Yeah... surprised, huh?"

"Well, I'd assumed you were home, but you do fly over here pretty often these days. So what brings you to LA this time? An audition?"

"Er - yeah, and a few other meetings and, you know, the usual sort of thing..." he trailed off unhelpfully, obviously hesitant to continue.

He was acting so strangely. He'd obviously called for a reason, likely an important one to explain the hour and the fact that he rarely called at all. But he didn't seem to be getting to the point any time soon or even making an attempt at holding a normal enough conversation. There was nothing else for it. She'd just have to ask.

"Matt, really, is everything all right?" she asked more insistently.

That seemed to jolt him enough to answer. He sighed dejectedly and it was then Alex knew for sure that whatever he was about to say wasn't exactly going to be good news. "I need a favor. It's kinda a big one."

A favor? She didn't know what he could possibly need from her, but at least they were getting somewhere now, and she had to say she was curious, even with the knot of worry still lingering within her.

"A favor?" she repeated cautiously, more than willing to help him in whatever mess he'd gotten himself into, but wary of committing herself to something too outlandish. Whatever sort of mad, insane favor she was envisioning that he could need, Alex wasn't sure. _'It's not like he needs helping burying a body or anything...'_ "What sort of favor?"

"If it's not too much trouble, do you think you could possibly... come pick me up?" he asked hesitantly.

Alex sighed in relief. He just needed a ride. He'd probably had too much to drink, like she'd suspected, and called the first locally-located name listed in his phone instead of a taxi. Chuckling lightly into the phone, she said, "Not exactly the massive, mad favor I was expecting, but darling, you could just call a taxi, you know."

"No, yeah, of course, and I can do that if you can't or don't want to - it _is_ late after all, and you've got Salome and all - it's just that my agent said I should try to avoid taking a taxi or anything right now..."

"Salome is with her father for the weekend - but your agent?" Curiosity spiking off the charts and her worry starting to grow in spades, Alex wondered what could possibly be happening that would require the involvement of Matt's agent in him getting back to wherever he was staying at the moment. "What does your agent suddenly have against you taking a taxi back to your hotel?"

"And there's the next part of the favor - do you think I could maybe crash at your place for a few days? Or even just tonight? I can figure out something else tomorrow." Matt's voice had lowered as he spoke, which allowed her to hear the chorus of voices in the background, followed by some sort of angry shout that she would have heard regardless.

"Matt, I don't understand," she said worriedly, sitting up against the sofa and holding the phone more urgently to her ear. There's no way he came to LA with no hotel to stay in and even if he had, he would have been able to book one easily enough when he arrived, not to mention why he would have put off finding someplace until so late at night. "What is going on? Where are you? And what's all that noise in the background?"

"Well, you see, Alex, you can't say anything, but I may have been... erm... arrested?"

******

Until tonight, Alex had never had cause to pay a visit to any of the LA police stations, or any other police station for that matter. The one she now found herself in front of was larger than she'd expected it to be, imposing, even in the dark of night. Not that it was deserted, not by any means. This was LA, after all, and a particularly active part of it at that. There were easily a dozen people milling around, both outside and just inside the glass doors, officers and detainees and visitors and even - Alex tucked a trailing curl back into the large hat on her head - someone staked out with a camera, no doubt on the lookout for anyone of note passing through the doors.

Alex hadn't wasted much time before rushing to her car. She'd asked Matt, panicked, what had happened and after hearing him mumble something about a fight, she'd only asked where he was before telling him she'd be right over and hanging up. Now twenty minutes later, here she was, sat in her car in the car park, trying to figure out if she needed to go inside or not.

She wasn't sure if Matt actually needed to be bailed out ( _'Wasn't that a surreal thought?'_ she wondered. That she was here to get Matt - childish, adorable, charming, lovable _Matt_ out of jail - she honestly couldn't believe it) or if he'd already taken care of that and just needed her to pick him up. Guessing that if he were still in custody (her mind simply couldn't adjust to how strange it felt to even think those words), they probably wouldn't have allowed him to use his own phone to make his calls, Alex decided to try texting him before she ventured inside and risked being seen, making this whole covert operation rather pointless, since he was obviously trying to avoid making headlines. Alex walking into the police station after midnight would attract just as much attention as Matt calling a taxi to pick him up. She picked up her phone.

\- _I'm outside. Have you been released yet or should I come in?_

She fired off the text and set the phone down on the dashboard, figuring she'd give him five minutes to respond before she made her way inside. That ended up not being at all necessary, though, because not twenty seconds later, her phone lit up and chimed with an answer.

_\- Youre a godsend!! All set in here. Be right out_

Sighing in relief, she set the phone down once more. She leaned her head back against her seat and allowed herself to close her eyes, just for a few moments, trying to picture Matt inside that building, inside a _cell_. It was simply impossible, the image unable to filter clearly through her brain due to the sheer absurdity of it. But surely, he must have been at some point - in a cell, in handcuffs, in the back of a squad car. Matt. _Her_ Matt. Her Matt, who she felt both motherly and, more and more over the years, decidedly _not_ -motherly towards.

Not that now was at all the time to think on _that_. But nonetheless, both sides of her were having definite trouble processing this.

There was a loud tap at her passenger side window, catching her attention, but it was only when she looked up at the person outside it that she jumped and gave a small squeak of alarm. It took her less than a second to recognize that it was, of course, just Matt, but only because she was so familiar with him already.

His appearance was jarring. He had a rather foreboding hood pulled over his head, no doubt trying to hide his face from any onlookers, he wore a ripped t-shirt beneath his jacket, soiled in spots with something she would soon come to realize was _blood_ , and stood with an almost intimidating stoop of his shoulders as he slouched over with his hands in his pockets, looking in at her. It was his face, however, that was the most alarming. His left eye was swollen and blackened, his lower lip was busted open, and he had a two-inch wide cut above his barely-there right eyebrow that was still oozing.

Her hands came up swiftly to cover her mouth in shock, and she just looked at him for another second before she realized the door was locked and he was waiting for her to let him in. She quickly hit the button on her door to unlock his and as soon as he heard the click of the lock, he was pulling the door open and sliding into the seat next to her. He turned swiftly to face her and in his shuffling, his hood fell halfway off his head, exposing his face to more of the light. He wore an expression that was equal parts guilt and embarrassment.

Alex was back to covering her mouth with one hand while the other lay over her chest. Her eyes were wide open as she continued to stare at him and she felt herself say the only words that came to mind. "Oh my God. _Oh my God,_ what happened to you?"

"So we're skipping the hellos then?" He gave a wry chuckle, but seeing her completely unimpressed reaction, lowered his eyes, unable to meet her horrorstruck gaze. "It was just a fight, Alex. It's looks worse than it is. I'm fine, really."

"You are not fine! Look at you!" she exclaimed, reaching the hand that had been on her chest out as if to touch his face - which part she had no idea, each wound more in need of attention than the others - but stopped herself just short of his skin, her fingers hovering in front of his cut brow. "You're still bleeding!"

"Just a little bit!" he said a touch defensively, glancing up for just a moment at her still-stricken face as she slowly lowered her hand down to her lap. He reached up to run a hand of his own through his hair, a common and decidedly _Matt_ gesture that almost made her feel the slightest touch better, until she saw him wince sharply and suck in a quick burst of air between his teeth.

She quickly reached out again, both hands this time darting in the direction of the back of his head. She was almost terrified that she'd see his fingers come away bloodied, but of course they didn't. Instead, when he pulled his still-clean hand away from his head, he brought the other over and lightly grasped both of her hands, which were still floating helplessly in midair. "Alex, I'm fine. Honestly. It's just a bump, a tiny one. Look, you can feel, if you like."

He led her hand to the back of his head and pressed her fingers lightly over the back-left portion of his scalp where there was a small bump. And it _was_ small, not the huge, throbbing tennis ball her imagination had cooked up, but that hardly made her feel any better.

Her fingers still resting on his scalp, Alex somehow managed to hold back the tears that had sprung, unbidden, to her eyes but was unable to stop the small sob that had been threatening to beak free from the moment she laid eyes on him. "Matt, what on Earth happened tonight? You look terrible!"

Matt cracked a lopsided half-grin. "You think this is bad, you should see the other guy," he joked, bringing up his half-closed fist for her inspection and what she saw was a line of angry-looking red and purple bruises covering his knuckles.

She glared at him and pulled her hand back from his head. "That's not funny, Matthew. This is serious. You're hurt! I just picked you up from _jail_! And what are you doing getting into a fight? With who? You're not a violent person - I don't understand any of this!"

Matt sighed exasperatedly, though Alex knew from the way he was avoiding her eyes again that his frustration was aimed at himself, not her. "It was just a stupid bar fight. Just some random bloke. It's nothing."

"Some random bloke? You look like you went up against the Incredible bloody Hulk!" Alex cried, still unable to believe what someone had done to the face she'd always loved so much.

"Way to stroke a guy's ego, Kingston, thanks," Matt muttered half-heartedly. "Is it really that bad?" he asked, pulling down the visor in front of his seat to look at himself in the mirror.

"You look _awful_! If I didn't know you so well, I wouldn't even have recognized you - which is probably how you got past that photographer out there!."

He groaned at his reflection, but then followed it up immediately with a laugh. "Well, that's certainly a plus right now, yeah? Mike - my agent - he's about to kill me. Maybe if people can't recognize me, the tabloids won't get a hold of the story?"

Alex shook her head. "This is definitely going to get out. You do know that, right? The press lives for this sort of thing." She sighed again and placed her hands on the steering wheel bracingly. "Let's just get you out of here. The sooner we get you to my place, the better."

Matt smirked. "Suddenly so quick to get me home, Kingston? What, are the cuts and bruises a turn on?" he asked, his voice changing pitch instantly to what Alex knew to be his prime flirting tone. He attempted to waggle his eyebrows but the cut over one and the swollen eye beneath the other hindered him halfway through and left him with another sharp wince.

Laughing lightly despite herself, Alex reached into her purse next to her and pulled out a packet of kleenex, taking one out of the package and bringing it up to Matt's face to wipe the few droplets of blood that had fallen from the cut on his forehead. "Yes, of course, darling, the sight of you battered, bruised, and bloodied has got me all hot and bothered. The strain of stopping myself from tearing your _literally_ bloody clothes from your body is simply unbearable."

Wincing slightly at what she was doing to his head, Matt managed a pout. "You're killing me, Kingston! No need to kick a man when he's down! Haven't I suffered enough for one evening without the teasing?"

Carefully, she wadded up the used tissue and set it aside, making a mental note to clear it out of the car later on. "Well, I'm sorry, dear, but _you_ started it."

 _'Classic Matt'_ , she thought gleefully, _'He can dish it out like a pro, but flirt back and the man loses his composure instantly.'_

He was still pouting and despite the mess that currently was his face, Alex couldn't help but find it rather adorable. "Seriously, though, let's get away from this damned police station before someone spots us and get back to my place. We'll clean you up a bit more and then you can get some rest. God knows you probably need it."

"Er... do you think we could possibly make a stop first?"

"Seriously?" she asked him incredulously, turning in her seat to face him directly. "You want to stop somewhere looking like that?"

He had the grace at least to look sheepish. "It's just that I sort of need to get my things from the hotel. They're not particularly happy with me since the bar was _in_ the hotel and there may have been a bit of damage, so I promised I'd find somewhere else to stay - that's why I asked if I could crash with you - but my bags are still there."

"Matt, if you go to that hotel, where you were just arrested after a bar brawl a very short time ago, you're going to be spotted for sure. I wouldn't be surprised if the place is already crawling with reporters trying to sniff out what happened tonight," she told him patiently.

"Well, like you said, it's gonna be news anyway. I'll be in and out, minimize my exposure to the vultures," he said with a shrug.

Alex sighed. "How about we drive over there, you give me your key, and I go get your bags while you wait in the car? Please tell me you're at least mostly packed and that I won't have to be fishing your dirty pants out from under the bed?"

Matt laughed. "Nah, no worries, I'm all packed. I was supposed to be heading back to London in the morning - but do you really think that's the best idea, with reporters probably buzzing around, like you said?"

He had a point. If anyone were to spot Alex going into Matt's hotel room, especially this late at night, the story about his fight would have to battle for coverage with the story about the illicit affair they were obviously having. But in the end, it didn't really matter, did it? Things like that always blew over eventually.

"Like you said, in and out. I doubt anyone will even notice me. Besides, anyone could just as easily see you walking in and out of my house over the next however long you're there. If they think we're shagging based on one very quick hotel visit, what are they going to think when they find you've been holed up in my house for days?"

"That I'm an _extremely_ lucky man?" Matt quipped, his voice flirty and playful.

"Oh, shut up!" she laughed back, going to slap his arm playfully, but pulling back at the last second. The man had suffered enough tonight and she didn't know if any other bruises were hiding beneath his sleeves.

"I'm serious, Kingston! The story of my getting my face smashed in will be long forgotten when presented with the apparent story that I'd managed to seduce you into my bed - or your bed, I guess, since it's your house and all."

Allowing herself only the tiniest giggle, she quickly schooled her face into one more serious than she currently felt. Flirting with Matt was fun, it always had been. It made her feel young and desirable again, even with the obviously joking tone of it. Matt certainly flirted with the best of them, and if she got to make him blush every now and again, then all the better. It was all harmless fun. The fact that Alex's thoughts occasionally (or a little more often than occasionally, really) strayed a little further into slightly more inappropriate areas where Matt was concerned, well, it was only natural, wasn't it, with the flirtatious nature of their relationship and the onscreen chemistry they'd shared for years?

"Yes, well, I don't think you're exactly in any shape to be seducing anyone tonight, darling. You look like you should be passed out on the floor somewhere." She started the car and gripped the steering wheel between her fingers. "Come on now, where were you staying? Let's get this done so we can get you home and into bed."

"See? I knew you were determined to get me into bed and have your wicked way with me. I don't need to worry about the seducing part, you've got it all figured out already, don't you?" he joked, smirking in her direction as the car started making its way out onto the street.

*******

They pulled into Alex's driveway almost an hour later. The pitstop at Matt's hotel was stressful but quick. She hadn't been approached by anyone and there hadn't been any obvious sightings, but she'd spent the entire time she walked through the lobby and hallways looking over her shoulder and out of the corner of her eye, which she was sure would draw at least some suspicions from the people around her. But as promised, Matt's suitcase and backpack were both packed and ready for his early morning flight that would now be flying back to the U.K. without him.

When she'd gotten back to the car, she'd found Matt lightly dozing and she hadn't had the heart to wake him just to have him spend the next 20 minutes waiting to get back to her home. She had to wake him now, though, in order to get him inside.

"Matt," she called softly, hoping he would hear her, but no, he was still out cold. She reached her hand out, intending to gently shake his shoulder, but when she found her gaze caught on that ugly cut on his head, instead found herself stroking her fingers through his hair and calling his name again, a bit louder this time.

His eyes opened and he jolted awake, instantly aware of his surroundings. "We're at yours already? That was quick!"

She laughed. "Very quick, I imagine, seeing as you've been fast asleep since before I got back from getting your things! Come on, let's get you inside."

Quickly, they got out of the car and grabbed their things, making their way indoors. As soon as the door was closed behind them, Alex ripped the horrible hat from her head and released her hair from the ponytail she'd thrown it into. Matt, meanwhile, glanced around, obviously looking to see if anything had changed from the previous time or two he'd visited over the years. Alex turned to face him. "Tea?" she offered.

She could see the indecision in his eyes before he shook his head. "Nah, think I'd just rather get to bed. Me head's starting to throb. Just point me in the direction of your guest room again? " he asked, already regathering his bags from the floor where he'd dropped them only moments before and moving to start up the stairs.

She grabbed hold of his arm, stopping him, and glared sternly. "I don't think so. You're a mess. We've got to get you cleaned up first!"

"What, are you gonna join me in the shower, Kingston?" he joked, grinning flirtatiously. "'Cuz I was just gonna wait 'till morning, but if you're offering -"

This time she paid no mind to any possible unseen bruises and swatted his arm. "You're terrible! Besides, from the state of you, I doubt you could successfully manage to actually wash yourself, let alone put forth a decent attempt at a shag! Neither of us want to see you embarrass yourself, darling."

Ignoring his outraged splutters, she once more grabbed hold of his wrist, grinning and laughing at his expense, and started dragging him towards the kitchen. "Besides, I meant your face, darling. You need ice for the swelling and that lip and cut should be cleaned so they don't get infected - God knows those jail cells are probably riddled with bacteria, come on!"

Entering the kitchen, Alex flicked on the lights and settled Matt into a chair at the small table in the corner. Leaving him to sulk, still insulted by her last quip, she walked over to the counter and filled her kettle with tea. If they were going to be up dealing with his injuries, they may as well have tea while they do it. She set the kettle on the stove and walked to her freezer, rifling through it. She quickly made an ice pack and walked over to stand by Matt's side, holding it out.

"This should do the trick. Put it over your eye and I'll be right back."

He took the ice reluctantly and placed it gingerly over his eye, wincing slightly before giving her a thumbs up to acknowledge what she'd said.

She left the kitchen and quickly made her way upstairs to the hall bathroom to gather a few things to help her clean Matt's face up. Normally when she was going through her first aid supplies, it was because Salome had fallen off her bicycle or some other injury normal for children, which had admittedly not happened in a good long while. Now, she had a fully-grown man sitting in her kitchen with a face looking like a badly bruised potato and she could only shake her head at the situation.

Once she'd gathered the peroxide, cotton balls, Neosporin, pain relievers, and plasters, she walked back downstairs and into the kitchen, where Matt was still seated. He was now leaning back, with his head danging off the back of his chair and the ice pack resting on his face, the heal of his hand pressed into it gently and his other eye closed. Hearing her approach, he weakly lifted his other hand in the air in greeting. Alex set the handful of supplies down on the table in front of him and bustled over to the counter where the water for the tea was just about ready, giving Matt's shoulder a brief, supportive pat on her way past.

A couple of short minutes later, she carried two mugs of tea over to the table, setting his down in front of him. She sat in her own chair across the table just as he was sitting up and reaching for the tea. "Careful of your lip, darling. A burn on an open wound like that won't be pleasant. Try to drink without it," she said helpfully.

Of course his first attempt at drinking the hot tea only ended in a yelp of pain. He immediately lowered the arm holding the mug and raised the other to his mouth, as if trying to defend it in case the offending drink tried to attack again.

"I did warn you," she said sorrowfully.

"I tried! Have you ever tried to drink without your bottom lip? Not so easy!" he shot back.

After another attempt, he seemed to have figured it out and once he had, he gratefully downed the painkillers Alex offered him. She then reminded him to put the ice back over his eye, seeing as he'd discarded it when she'd set the tea down. She picked up the used teabag she'd brought to the table and reached her hand out to him, indicating for him to take it.

He stared at her out of his good eye. "What do I need the teabag for?"

"It's for your lip. It'll help with the swelling," she told him matter-of-factly, trying not to laugh at his obvious confusion.

"You're kidding!" Matt laughed as he reached out and took the teabag from her hand and gently pressed it to his swollen and cut lip. He hissed in pain briefly before letting it settle in place. "And this really works?" he managed to ask, his words muffled as he spoke around the teabag.

"No, I'm just getting ready to take a picture to remind you how ridiculous you look later," she told him, only able to partially hold back a laugh at the look on his face. He was obviously unsure whether to believe her or not and seemed to be debating whether he'd look more foolish keeping the bag on his lip or taking it off. "Just a joke, darling, keep it on."

"Evil woman," he mumbled, shooting her a mock look of hatred that only got made her laugh again. Even all bruised and swollen and sporting a glare out of his one good eye, his face was still hilariously adorable and that, while slightly terrifying to Alex, was also inexplicably funny.

She made him sit there in silence for the next few minutes while the teabag and ice worked their magic on his face. Once she'd determined that enough time had passed, she told him to take them off. He sat up and tossed both aside gratefully.

"Finally! Between the hot and the cold, I think my face is going numb! And I don't think either of those worked on the swelling much," he said, bringing his hands up to inspect the damage still left behind.

He was right, of course. Neither the swelling of his eye or his lip had gone down significantly. But looking at the combined state of his face, he was going to need all the home remedies he could get to get everything back to the size and color it should be.

She hummed. "Well you're quite battered, darling, you can't expect all that swelling to go down in ten minutes." She reached over to the discarded ice pack and held it out again. "And here, take this back. Put it on that lump on your head now."

Once he pressed the ice to his head, Matt sat up straight and leaned over the table, resting his chin on the closed fist of his free hand. The jovial front he'd been putting on most of the night slid away and he looked back at her seriously. "So I just wanted to, you know, thank you - for coming down and picking me up and - well, everything. You've been a real life saver tonight, Kingston. Don't know what I would have done without you. Seriously. Thank you."

Alex smiled back at him and waved off his thanks. "It was nothing!

"No, it wasn't nothing!" he insisted, sitting up again. "I call you up, out of the blue, in the middle of the night, asking you to come pick me up from _jail_ , and you just got in your car and came, no questions asked. Hell, you didn't even give me grief about getting into a fight!"

"Well, Matt, hard as it may be to believe sometimes, you are a grown man," she told him with a chuckle. "It's not my place to scold you for something like that - though I think I'm safe in saying that your mother will certainly have a few choice words about this whole mess and that you should call her first thing in the morning and try to tell her yourself before she hears it from the press."

Matt groaned. "God, she's gonna kill me, isn't she?"

"In all probability, yes."

He sighed dejectedly. "Thanks for that, Kingston, you know just how to cheer me up."

"I'm only being truthful, darling."

Petulantly, Matt stuck his tongue out at her instead of answering.

Alex gave a short laugh, shaking her head fondly before she found herself gazing mournfully at his face. Matt noticed almost instantly. "It's really not as bad as it looks you know. You honestly don't have to go through all the motions of trying to patch me up and all."

She felt a well of emotion unexpectedly rise in her chest. She busied her hands with the bag of cotton balls in front of her, trying to open it to take one out and dropping her gaze away from his concerned stare. "I know. I just... hate that someone could actually do this to you."

"Yeah, me too," Matt said with a small, lopsided grin. "No, but seriously, it's my own fault. I let my temper get the best of me. I know better than that."

Alex scooted her chair closer to his, getting ready to start cleaning his cuts. Being so close to him, much closer than personal boundaries would deem appropriate under normal circumstance, sent a warm, tingling feeling through her body. Doing her best to ignore it, she poured peroxide onto a cotton ball and laid one hand on the side of Matt's head, gently tilting it back. He let her guide him, but when she pressed the cotton ball to his forehead, dabbing it over the wide cut there, he let out a small, sharp hiss of pain. "Sorry, dear, but I won't have you getting some jailhouse infection on my watch."

"S'all right. I think I'll survive," he said with a chuckle.

"Good. It would be a shame to have to explain to the world that Matt Smith dropped dead in my kitchen while having a cut cleaned out."

"Yeah, that wouldn't exactly be big on dignity, would it?" he asked with a grimace.

"No, I wouldn't imagine so." She replaced the cotton ball with a new one and started cleaning the cut on his bottom lip. Her fingers pressed themselves around the corner of his mouth, holding his face in place as she worked and she had to consciously stop herself from following her instinct to run her fingers gently over his lips. Ever since their first kiss on the show, she'd adored his lips, both aesthetically and in a more practical manner. Being so up close and personal with them without having an innocent and professional reason to kiss him senseless was distracting.

Looking for a way to distract herself, she asked, "So are you going to tell me what actually happened tonight, or am I going to have to be content with my mental image of you getting thrown around by the Incredible Hulk?

The small smile that had been on Matt's face dropped and his gaze broke from hers as he shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "It was nothing, honestly. Just some drunk bloke riling me up. I shouldn't have let him get to me."

"I'm surprised you did. Even drunk, I've never seen you anywhere near close to hitting someone. He must have really gotten under your skin," she told him. She reached for the bottle of Neosporin, spreading a small bit over her fingers. When he didn't respond to her in any way or even raise his gaze from the table, she used her free hand to tilt his face back again, both angling him to the angle she needed him at and forcing him to look at her once more. As she rubbed the substance into his forehead, she tried getting him to open up.

"So? Care to share? What on Earth could this man have done that would lead to you getting into a fight? In public, at that? "

She watched as he debated how, or perhaps even whether, to answer her. His jaw tightened, barely perceptibly. "Nothing, really. It was just drunk, macho guy stuff. He kept, you know, taunting me and challenging me, and then he started talking about my mum - like regular, generic insulting-a-guy's-mother things, and I'd had a bit to drink and I just snapped."

Alex considered this. It didn't sound particularly like Matt to give in to the sort of antagonism that went on in pubs and bars and clubs, no matter what they could have said. He was incredibly close to his mother, but she doubted that having some stranger who most likely didn't know the first thing about Lynne Smith, including her name, provoke him to the point of assault was something he would let happen, alcohol or no.

"I don't believe you," she said simply, pulling her hands away from his face and setting the tube of ointment down on the table. "First of all, you were completely sober by the time I picked you up and only slurring your words a bit when you called. You can't have been drinking enough for the alcohol to have been a real factor here and I just don't think you'd let some random drunk rile you up without a real reason. So what are you leaving out? Did he know who you were?"

"Oh, he knew who I was, all right," Matt said bitterly, a glower forming on his face.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Matt sat up a little straighter in his seat and sat down the ice pack he'd been holding to his head. "Just that practically the second he saw me, he recognized me and drew a target on my back."

Alex reached over and picked up the box of plasters. "He recognized you and just started goading you? Not exactly the normal fan encounter, is it?" she asked as she fished out a bandage large enough to cover the cut on his head.

He laughed hollowly. "He was definitely a fan, just not particularly of the show, I don't think. I figure he must have a kid who watches or something because he was sure as hell familiar with... certain things."

"What do you mean? Like what?" she asked, trying to plot out the encounter in her head with the limited information she was getting.

Matt shook his head exasperatedly and shifted in his seat. "It's really not important, Alex. I just wanna forget about the whole thing."

"Nonsense! Now you've got me all interested! What did he say?" she asked as she reached out and placed the bandage she'd been holding in her hand over his forehead. Her fingers stroked gently over where the cut was, smoothing the plaster to his skin, and she saw Matt's eyes close in contentment for the briefest moment at the touch. When they opened again, he let out a deep sigh.

"He started talking about you."

She pulled her hands from his face and dropped them to her lap. "What?" How did she suddenly become a part of the story?

"I was just sitting at the bar, having a couple drinks, when he sat down next to me. We started talking, normal enough, and then he said he recognized me, but not in a fannish sort of way, just kinda acknowledging he knew who I was. So we kept talking, and then he brought up how lucky I was... for getting to work with you." Matt's eyes raised to meet hers hesitantly, as if afraid of what he would find staring back at him. When she failed to show any kind of reaction, too surprised and filled with apprehension for where the story could be headed, he reluctantly continued.

"At first I didn't think much of it, I just agreed and said you were great and all, but then he kept going on about you and how he used to watch you on ER, and pretty quickly he just started making a bunch of really... tasteless comments."

"Tasteless comments?" she asked, almost afraid of how he would answer.

Once again unable to meet her eyes, Matt continued talking to his hands. "He was asking if we'd ever, you know, hooked up behind the scenes or anything and then went on about... what he'd do with you if he were in my shoes and it just - it just got worse from there. A lot worse. I tried getting him to stop, but once he saw I wasn't amused by any of the stuff he was saying, he started trying to purposefully rile me up - and he did throw in a few comments about my mum, I didn't make that up - and he just kept saying things about you, awful things, and I kept getting angrier and angrier and eventually I just snapped... and I hit him."

Alex sat there, stunned. This whole night, the entire ordeal, the fight that had both given Matt a multitude of injuries to his face and landed him in jail, was over _her_. Some drunk pervert in the hotel bar had made unsavory comments to him about her and he had... what? Leapt to defend her honor? It wasn't so much that she was surprised that Matt would get angry hearing someone prattle on like that about _anyone_ , but more that he had reacted so strongly. And for _her_.

"Alex? Please say something."

While all those thoughts ran through her mind, Alex hadn't actually paid any attention to Matt sitting there in front of her, obviously nervous about her reaction. But she had no idea what to say. She had a dozen things she could say, a dozen questions to ask, but none of them seemed quite right to voice aloud. "Honestly? I really have no idea what to say right now, Matt."

He groaned in frustration. "Say I'm an idiot! Say it was stupid to let some arsehole goad me into hitting him! Tell me you don't need me... I dunno, defending your honor, especially against some random drunk in a bar you'll never even meet!"

Alex considered his words carefully. "Ok, yes, I can agree with all of those things. But really, I'm just left wondering _why_?"

That seemed to stump him, judging by the blank look on his face. "Why what?"

She bit her lip for a moment, trying to find the right words to phrase her question. "Why would you get yourself into so much trouble on my account? Just because someone, who as you said, I'll likely never meet, was saying... things... about me?"

The sheepish look that spread across his face was made all the more endearing by the small smile that accompanied it. "Come on, Alex, it's not like you don't know I'm mad about you. It can't be that big of a surprise that I'd leap to your defense at the drop of a hat, hang the consequences."

There was a buzzing in the back of her brain, insisting that something important was happening, that she should be focusing, but she was still too busy trying to gather her thoughts to pay it much mind. "But, Matt, look at your _face_! Look at what happened!"

He ran a hand gingerly over his face, feeling the new contour of it and rubbing at his one good eye. "Yeah, well, I'm not saying he didn't get a few good licks in, but I got him with a few of my own. I'm pretty sure he had a broken nose at the end there. Not that I'm proud of that or anything, but I also don't want you thinking I jumped to your defense and failed miserably. I mean, what a way to win you over right? Get my arse kicked and not even give the bloke what he had coming to him."

"Wait! Wait just a moment!" She waved a hand in front of her, getting his confused attention. But his confusion was nothing to rival hers at the moment. Because he had just said - "What do you mean 'win me over'?"

The look on his face morphed into one of light embarrassment as he gave a small, shy laugh. "I've been hung up on you from the start, Alex. You have to know that, right? I mean, everyone knows it. I've never been exactly subtle."

The buzzing in her head had shifted to a ringing in her ears. She can't have heard what she thought she had. She had to be imagining it - it was nearing two in the morning after all, she was probably just tired. Because Matt couldn't have just said - what? That he liked her? That he had feelings for her? That he loved her? Each was even more ridiculous than the one before it. It didn't make any sense. Yes, of course they flirted, obscenely so at times, but it was all an _act_. It wasn't serious. Of course there had been plenty of times where _she_ had fully meant every flirtatious word she'd said, but no one else knew that, and anyway, that was her, not _him_. Even the idea that he could have been doing the same thing was ridiculous.

She forced a shaky laugh out and waved his words away from her. "You don't mean that."

Matt stared at her as if she'd grown an extra head. "Are you mad? Of course I do! From the day I met you, I've thought you were gorgeous and kind and hilarious and dead sexy! You've got hair like magic and your laugh should be illegal and your daughter is brilliant and... I dunno, I'm just happier when you're around."

She could only gape at him, too stunned to form a coherent sentence.

Matt pressed on. "But don't worry, I know you don't feel the same, I mean I'm not an idiot - well, I am an idiot, tonight proves that, but I'm not an idiot about this. I don't expect anything. So forget I even said anything and we can just pretend the last three minutes never happened and continue on the way we've been and-"

Before Alex could even contemplate what she was doing, before she could think anything through beyond the fact Matt was sitting in front of her, telling her that he'd been pining after her for years, that all the time that she'd flirted with him, wishing that it could lead to more than the friendship they shared, that he'd been doing and feeling the exact same, she leaned in and kissed him.

Unfortunately, it didn't have quite the effect she'd imagined in the fraction of a second she'd thought about it, because almost as soon as her lips pressed against his, he jerked back with an anguished squeak, his hand flying to his cut and swollen lip. Surprise and pain battled for control of his face.

"Oh, God, Matt, I'm sorry! I didn't even think about your lip!" she cried out, hands flying to cover her mouth as guilt filled her. "Are you all right?"

Still staring at her in shock, he nodded dumbly. "Yeah, I'm fine. That just definitely wasn't what I'd been expecting, is all." He paused. "So the fact that you just kissed me means...?"

She gave a small, careful grin. "That you really are an idiot, darling. We both are."

He continued to stare at her in shock but a smile spread quickly across his face. "I can live with that. So this means that you-"

"Have been feeling guilty for years for flirting so obscenely with you, because it was always more than just joking to me," she confessed.

"Really?"

"Really."

Matt's smile grew and spread wider than she knew could be comfortable with his split lip. "I'd really like to kiss you again right about now," he said matter-of-factly.

"That's probably not the greatest idea," she told him, her insides vibrating with suppressed joy.

"Why not?"

"Your lip, darling, remember?" she said gently, reaching out her hand to touch his chin, letting her finger trace beneath the injured lip gently

"Right. Probably not the best idea," he said, obviously put out. "But if I weren't such a mess right now, would you let me?"

"Well, considering I just kissed you first, I think the obvious answer to that would be 'God, yes.'"

There was a pause as Matt considered this.

"Then fuck it." And almost as quickly as when she'd kissed him, he was kissing her, and this time, it last longer than half a second. His mouth was gentle against hers, nice and sweet and really just perfect. She could feel the swelling of his lip but he hadn't broken away yet to hiss in pain again, so it must not have been that painful. Either that or he was ignoring it. Either way, she kissed him back all too happily. When his tongue darted out to trace against her lips, she eagerly opened her mouth to allow him in and felt him stroke against the roof of her mouth. She let out the tiniest of whimpers as they broke apart for air.

But that lasted only a moment before he pulled her in again, this time burying one hand in her hair while dropping the other down to her hip, his fingertips curling around the edge of her chair. This kiss was much more enthusiastic, and Alex knew he had to be in pain, but if he wasn't complaining, she wasn't going to. Her one arm wrapped around his neck and the other rested against his chest as they explored each others mouths, for the first able to do so while not pretending to be other people. 

When they broke apart again, Matt, out of breath, leaned his forehead against hers and laughed in disbelief. "This night just keeps getting more and more surreal," he said, out of breath and smiling.

"It could get even more surreal if you like, she told him, equally breathlessly, nodding her head in the direction of upstairs.

He groaned. "God, I wish. You have _no idea_ how much I wish. But like you said earlier, I wouldn't be able to put forth a decent attempt at a shag right now to save my life. I'm way too knackered and me head's spinning and throbbing-"

"That's not the only thing throbbing," she laughed naughtily, glancing down. During the second longer kiss, they'd rearranged themselves to a closer position, with Alex's knee pressed between his legs, where the tightness of his jeans was evident. "Besides, I'm reversing my earlier position. I'm sure you'd manage just fine." She leaned in and kissed him again.

Matt let out something that was a combination of a moan and a groan as he pulled away. "Maybe. But Jesus, Kingston, I've dreamed about this for way too long to have you settle for 'managing just fine'. You deserve the world, which I'll be perfectly capable of giving you tomorrow."

She raised an eyebrow. "You're awfully confident in yourself."

"And for good reason, as you'll see," he growled. " _Tomorrow_."

She nodded, eyes glinting. "Tomorrow." She stood up and reached out her hand, which he took and moved to stand up alongside her. "So, I was thinking earlier about you all locked up in that police station."

"Yeah?"

She pulled him out of the kitchen and back into the hall. "I kept trying to picture you in handcuffs and I just couldn't. What was that like for you?"

He stooped down to pick up his bags and moved to follow her towards the staircase. "Bloody awful. Not something I'd ever wanna experience again," he said with a shudder, rotating one of his wrists where the cuffs had cut into it.

Alex, whose tone had gone decidedly too innocent, raised her eyebrows before turning her back and starting to walk up the steps. "Well that's such a shame, darling, because I was rather hoping to get a reenactment of it. I'm sure I have a pair of handcuffs lying around upstairs _somewhere_."

Matt stopped dead in his tracks while she continued her way upstairs. She was sure she knew what images were flooding his brain. Probably the same that were running through hers - a naked Alex hovering over an equally bare him as he was handcuffed to her bed. Judging from the look on his face, the idea of being locked up in handcuffs again didn't sound nearly so awful anymore and she was sure his resolve to hold out on her until the following day was crumbling before her eyes.

He looked up at Alex, who only smirked knowingly down at him. With a nearly animalistic growl, he raced up the stairs after her, leaving his bags abandoned on the floor behind him. Something told her he wouldn't be needing to change into a set of pyjamas tonight.

 


End file.
